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Technology and Privacy and You

Now that FaceBook, YouTube, Twitter, blogging sites are really taking off, how do you remain save and retain your privacy? Is that even possible anymore? Most kids these days have grown up never knowing that there was a world without the Internet. Many have always signed up for free accounts online and not hesitated at providing every last bit of personal data that is requested to sign up for a free account at the latest new site. Maybe it’s not such a bad thing?

I mean, now when you call the pizza restaurant for delivery, they know who you are and where you live just from your caller ID. That’s convenient, right? You don’t have to waste time over and over again giving the same information to them.

When I buy something from Amazon, the site CAN save my credit card number for future purchase convenience so I don’t have to fumble through my wallet entering the number time and time again. The site also ‘remembers’ my last purchases and gives me suggestions about what I might like to purchase based on what others who purchased similar items went on to buy. Helpful? Maybe… maybe not.

For someone who has always protected her personal space and privacy, putting things ‘out there’ on the internet was a huge struggle and is still something that I continuously monitor. It seems like FaceBook changes its privcy policy and what and how things are ‘made public’ more often than I post to this blog!

At first, on Twitter I was cautious and protected my tweets. Then I found that it was more fun if you threw caution to the wind and unprotected your account. That meant a fair amount of spammers and sales-y types of followers, but you can block those. And you can be more circumspect in what you post. But doesn’t that defeat the purpose of throwing anything you want out there… if you have to continuously watch what you are tweeting and posting to blogs and facebook and any other site on the internet that is self-postable?

I wonder if all of the self-promotion is worth it. If you have to watch and monitor and hope that no one steals your identity and that no one starts stalking you, what is the point anymore?

A colleague of mine once said that the safest computer is one that is not on the network. And I now believe that is true. And maybe the safest way to express your thoughts and feelings is in person with your closest friends.